1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of information presentation and, more particularly, to the display of information in an electronic space that is rotationally dependent.
2. Description of the Related Art
The presentation of information is a crucial component of business that is often underappreciated. Most software applications present information obtained from an electronic space using a visual modality, sometimes supplemented with an alternative audio presentation of the information. A series of tools have been developed to facilitate the presentation and user selection manipulation of information. Conventional interface tools include, for example, hot-keys, menus, toolbars, pop-up command lists, mouse clicks, and the like. Together, these tools facilitate user interaction with the information in the electronic space. However, the majority of existing tools are severely limited in the ways in which they display information.
The primary limitation to these software tools is the manner in which information can be displayed without losing logical continuity, display area, and integrity. For example, a popular method for displaying information is through pop-up windows. With pop-up windows, as the number of user activated pop-up windows increases, the amount of visible display area decreases. Soon, the pop-up windows clutter the interface and obscure the information that is being displayed. Also, a use of too many pop-up windows can degrade system performance, since each window can consume computing resources.
Another problem with many existing implementations is that the tool functions in an expected and linear manner. That is, the elements act in a way that is consistent with a physical reality. For example, selecting the forward-facing or “next” button displays the subsequent page of a numeric sequence. Additionally, the amount of information that can be displayed is limited by the quantity of available space of the object. For example, the amount of information contained in a book is limited by the number of pages it contains and each page can only display two sides of information.
To cope with these shortcomings, many tools have become overly complex and cumbersome. Users are forced to use these limited, cluttered, and complex tools without a reasonable alternative. Worse, few standards exist, as each attempted method has many flaws, so tool users are often forced to learn new interface tools for each software application that they use.